I’m a little late with this and didn’t announce it either, but today… live coverage of the Champions League 2007-2008 draw.
We just have been drawn in Group F.
A sweet cherry for us: second in Group F are Roma. Will we bang in another 7 this time?
Chelsea, Group B, already has Valencia and the Germans from Schalke04 in their group.
Sporting Lisbon now drawn in our Group.
Liverpool teamed up with FC Porto, Jose’s former club, and Marseille. I think Cisse and Zenden will look forward to their return to Anfield Road.
Arsenal together with the winner of the AEK Athens/Sevilla1 game and Steua Bucharest.
Last team in our group are Dynamo Kiev, the Ukrainian champions.
To resume: Manchester United – AS Roma – Sporting Lisbon – Dynamo Kiev. All in all I think we shouldn’t have to big problems getting to the knock out round.
Other groups.
Group A: Liverpool, FC Porto, Marseille and Besiktas.
Liverpool should throne this group without too many problems either, followed by FC Porto. Besiktas might be the surprise here.
Group B: Chelsea – Valencia – Schalke 04 – Rosenborg.
Not that many problems to be expected for Chelsea either. I think Jose will be happy he escaped Werder Bremen and the Turkish clubs.
Group C: Real Madrid – Werder Bremen – Lazio Rome – Olympiacos.
This is an interesting pool, and probably the hardest group in the first stages this year. Werder Bremen again draws one off the harder groups after last year they were together with Chelsea and Barcelona and only closely missed qualification for the next round after having drawn the Catalans and beaten Chelsea. But if the European stage can give them fire again, I think this year they have a chance to qualify.
Group D: The European Champions, AC Milan, meet Benfica, Celtic Glasgow and Shaktar Donestsk.
This is an open group for the second qualifying spot. There’s hardly any doubt about AC Milan to win this group and Celtic might very well qualify for the next round here.
Group E: Barcelona – Lyon – Stuttgart – Glasgow Rangers
Another very interesting and open group. Barcelona and Lyon obviously are the top favorites in this group, but Stuttgart have shown their quality before in the Champions League and might be the surprise in Group E.
Group G: Inter Milan – PSV Eindhoven – CSKA Moscow – Fenerbahce.
Probably the most boring group of all. The rather unspectacular Italian champions paired with the just as unspectacular Dutch champions Eindhven and Turkish Fenerbahce. Is this the chance for CSKA Moscow?
Group H: Arsenal – Winner Sevilla/AEK Athens – Steaua Bucharest – Slavia Prague.
I don’t like to admit it, but Arsenal has every chance to win this group, before Sevilla (if they qualiy). I think the second spot is open in this group if AEK Athens were to win the postponed return against Sevilla.
All in all this is a good day for us, and the other 3 English contenders. We all have been drawn in groups we should win rather easily and some spectacular games await the ManU fans, ManU – AS Roma being the most interesting fixture after our spectacular 7-1 win last season.
1The return game has been postponed after the death of Sevilla defender Antonio Puerta.